Mitchell's 'passion' on Komen story

For Andrea Mitchell, reporting on the showdown between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood was a wrenching experience — “one of those stories you really don’t want to be covering,” she says — but the MSNBC correspondent drew strength from knowing she was providing a voice to fellow breast cancer survivors.

The host of “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” who disclosed in September that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, described in an interview with POLITICO how she brought a special “passion” to the story this week because of her own life experience.

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“I’ve always believed and still believe that men, women, people of any color can cover any issue, regardless of what their personal connection [to a story] might be, and sometimes we bring a sensibility to it because we have more information based on personal experience,” Mitchell said. “An African-American man or woman who’s had a different response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. than I did … that was a case where a black person would have brought more. In this case, I probably do bring more passion.”

This week, when Komen announced that it would stop funding Planned Parenthood, Mitchell quickly became the go-to TV anchor to cover a story that outraged so many longtime supporters of the organization. Mitchell was first to interview Komen founder Nancy Brinker and invited public figures who disagreed with the group’s decision, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a group of female Democratic senators, to appear on her show.

“It’s hard to explain when you’ve lost someone to breast cancer and then run with that person’s name on your T-shirt, how determined you are, holding back your tears, when you’re seeing the young survivors surrounding you, and it is just such a powerfully emotional experience,” Mitchell said. “I remember as a very young woman running, having just lost my closest friend, and knowing that I was running that race for her. It kept me going.”